Losing reliable news hurts all

So long, “Stork Report” — for starters. Hello, new “news desert”?

When I subscribed to the twice-weekly Anaconda Leader, I always got a chuckle out of the item on births of area interest. I was aghast when one issue its headline changed to “Birth Announcements.” 

How dull is that? I had to stand up for the homespun in one of my favorite local-news reads. I wrote to the editor, "Stork Report” came back, and I got to chuckle again, and keep up on the latest in Copperopolis, where I have often visited family.

Last month, the Leader shut after 55 years. Editor James S. Rosien wrote, “The Leader witnessed many changes in Anaconda,” including the new Montana Constitution, the smelter’s closure and years of uncertainty, “but then a new hope for the future with the era of environmental cleanup that is seeing the Smelter City transform into a recreation destination.”

Scrappy Anaconda was bootstrapping itself to brighter days, with the assistance of journalists in informing residents and sharing their views. I enjoyed watching this transformation from afar, as the Flathead makes similar changes.

I grew up in a household that took the Great Falls Tribune and Helena Independent Record daily. No wonder I went to work in newsrooms in the American West to Midwest and Asia, solidifying my love for journalism despite economic headwinds.  

Information wants to be free, they say, and many are unwilling to pay for it. 

Anyone with a mic, wi-fi and audio-editing chops can sound like a journalist. If I take up a scalpel, do I become a surgeon? Trained journalists learn and follow ethics related to sources, verification, and fair and balanced coverage.  

News outlets were caught flat-footed never having had to tell their own story before, and the public has been slow to evolve in the reader-writer relationship. The Pew Research Center reported in 2019 that even though newspaper advertising had declined 67% since 2005, seven in 10 of the roughly 35,000 respondents said they thought their local news media were doing somewhat or very well financially. When asked if they had paid or given money, either as a subscriber, donor or member, 84% said no. 

The way to have reliable local news is to support it. If readers don’t help fund the work of skilled journalists, eventually it can drop from view. Community suffers for it. 

The Medill State of Local News Initiative reported in 2024 that the country has lost more than a third of its newspapers since 2005, effects of which already were showing themselves. Authors of the 2022 report noted, “Research shows that, in communities without a strong print or digital news organization, voter participation declines and corruption increases.”  

Local news serves as community glue. There’s still hope for Anaconda’s, as Rosien later wrote, “I have been deeply privileged to be here and to tell this town's stories, and I will continue to do so as long as I'm able. It will be in a different format under a different banner, but the stories and the storyteller will remain.”  

All readers should be so lucky to have such dedicated, responsive journalism. 

Margaret E. Davis, executive director of the Northwest Montana History Museum, can be reached at [email protected].